Mission Style Bench

I made this bench as a “practice run” for the matching dining table project I’ve been gearing up to do. It’s made from red oak salvaged from ship’s “dunnage,” or the rough, non-squared beams they use to separate cargo containers and other materials. The third picture shows an example one of the beams in its raw state before I starting working it. I work strictly with hand tools, and luckily I wasn’t on a time deadline…

The joinery is mostly drawbored mortise and tenon with floating panels for the benchtop. The surfaces were smoothed but intentionally left with the character born of the wood’s history. The pictures show the bench first in its dry-fit state, and then after glue-up and finishing. It was finished with Minwax Red Oak stain and seven coats of Wipe-On Poly. (By the way, the white area in the final picture is a reflection from my flash, and not something in the finish itself.)

The bench also opens up to reveal a shallow storage area (much like a piano bench). Since this bench is for our dining table, i thought it would be convenient to have a nearby place to store placemats, tablecloths, and other table accessories.